| When consumers make purchasing decisions, they have to evaluate the consumption outcomes or benefits afforded by the products they are considering. Because consumption outcomes usually cannot be assessed directly in the store, consumers learn to use search features as indicators of consumption outcomes. When consumers are not aware of the attribute(s) that actually determine those outcomes, consumers may use brand names as the primary indicators of consumption outcomes and therefore may show strong brand preferences. However, when consumers are aware of a product's critical attribute(s), one would expect consumers to rely primarily on attribute information, because intrinsic attributes should have a more direct causal relationship with consumption outcomes. Thus, to the extent that brand equity depends on brand-driven differences in predicted consumption outcomes, brand equity should decrease when consumers are provided with predictive attribute information.;Seven experiments provided support for this prediction when consumers were exposed to brand and attribute information simultaneously. However, this effect did not occur or was strongly attenuated when consumers had just a few experiences with brand names before being exposed to predictive attribute information. Whereas consumers had little difficulty learning the predictive value of attributes when they were exposed to brand and attribute information simultaneously, consumers failed to learn the predictive value of attributes when they were pre-exposed to brand information. Thus, brand pre-exposure may "block" the acquisition of value by attributes, allowing brands to maintain equity in the face of predictive attribute information.;The experiments showed the blocking effect to be robust, e.g., to prior beliefs favoring attributes, a very low number of brand pre-exposures, and the absence of trial-by-trial prediction. In addition, significant blocking effects were found when positioning attributes accompanied brand names and when consumers experienced several brands that shared the same attributes. Results suggest that blocking is caused by an associative learning process instead of normative causal reasoning, truncated attention, or the use of principles of explanatory coherence. The experiments also suggest that, in general, brands and attributes compete for equity. Implications are discussed for theories of how brands and attributes acquire and lose customer-based equity. |
